The exemplary embodiment relates to print profile selection and finds particular application in connection with printing of a color document.
In digital production printing color workflows, document color is rendered on many different devices, such as RGB displays and color printers. Different devices have different gamuts (i.e., sets of colors which can be rendered), and are sometimes not able to reproduce the full set of colors contained in a color document. Gamuts differ not only between a display and a printer but also between printers of a different generation or printers using different types of print technology, ink, and paper.
Software tools known as gamut alarms have been used to alert users to the fact that the colors they are using within their document will be out of gamut for the selected print profile (i.e., a characterization of the combination of printer type, paper medium and print configuration) and therefore will not be reproduced accurately. Subsequently, to address this, users can change the print profile, restrict the colors in their document so as to only use print profile compatible colors, or just accept that out-of-gamut colors will print differently (i.e., an automatic gamut mapping transform algorithm will be applied). This creates a situation where gamut alarms need to be dealt with by the user in an individual one-by-one manner per printing profile. Users need to remember or record the different ways in which the print profiles relate to their color document. This makes selection of the best solution for their document difficult. Additionally, other factors that may be relevant to the user's print profile selection, such as cost, are not able to be factored into these decisions.